We were due for a nailbiter. Unfortunately, this one didn’t go our way.
The Minnesota Timberwolves had to pull out all of the stops to keep this game close after a torrid 36-26 third quarter by the Cleveland Cavaliers, though the Wolves ultimately suffered their first defeat of the season in an overtime thriller. After splitting the season series 1-1 last year, this game had all the makings of a tight contest.
Circumstantially, this game was not set up for Minnesota to succeed. The Wolves were playing
on the second night of a back-to-back after their first and only home game of the season thus far. The crisp offensive showings of the previous three wins seemed to go away as the game went on, as tired legs and sloppy play became the norm in the second half of the game.
Some could call it a “schedule loss.” While not entirely false, I think that may be a bit superficial.
Some poor decision-making and questionable foul calls would stand to doom the Wolves, though they fought through adversity and still almost came up with the win. It’s a tough loss to stomach, without a doubt, but this game provided some good early-season warning signs and key areas for the team to clean up.
Scars of the Old Wolves Come Roaring Back
A disaster of a third quarter. Poor officiating decisions and even worse reactions to those calls. Letting a usually unheralded player torch you from beyond the arc. That’s the brand of Minnesota basketball that I am unfortunately all-too familiar with.
In my last postgame recap, I’d made a comment about how the Kawhi Leonard-less Toronto Raptors were a team that would have, in past seasons, given the Timberwolves fits. The comment section told the tales of the “scars” that we as fans carry in regards to these aforementioned tropes. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a great team, of course, but this felt like a winnable game against an Eastern Conference finalist just a season ago. Minnesota just got bit too sharply by the scars of the past.
As mentioned earlier, Cleveland won the third quarter 36-26 as the Timberwolves squandered a 10-point halftime lead to go into the final frame all knotted up at 86. When the starting unit was in, they looked sluggish and out of sorts. Tired legs can be blamed for this, sure, but the hero-ball and sloppy turnovers turned from a brief trend into the offensive identity of the team for the rest of the game. Anthony Edwards made a ton of shots to keep the game competitive, though contributions from the rest of the roster continued to fade away.
I had also mentioned in our Canis Hoopus opening night predictions that we will need to see how this Timberwolves team deals with adversity and allowing opponents to go on runs. After tonight’s game, the jury is still out on that point.
Minnesota also made superstars out of a couple Cavaliers bench players. Rookie Meleek Thomas was electric from beyond the arc en route to a 16-point performance on four of five shooting from deep in just 19 minutes of play. Jaylon Tyson was a team-best +15 in just 20 minutes. Once their shots started falling, the Cleveland Big Three trio of James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Evan Mobley decided to follow suit. It was all downhill from there.
What has typically followed the hero-ball motif of the Timberwolves is the increase in foul calls against them. Jaden McDaniels saw his fouls rapidly increase to the point of fouling out early in overtime. His technical foul was a much-deserved denigration of the officials after a slew of questionable decisions, though the moral victory doesn’t do much for the wins column.
Minnesota lost its composure and paid the price for it. It’s that simple. Failure to execute loses games. The Wolves will have to regroup and figure out how to better themselves before the next match.
LaMelo Ball’s Lack of Impact
This was the first game of the season where LaMelo Ball was a total net-negative. He finished with a meager 11 points, zero rebounds, six assists, and seven (!) turnovers across 31 minutes of play. While the rest of the Timberwolves starters were positive in their BPM, Ball finished at a -10. That’s just not good enough.
While I was evocative in my praise for his performance in the last game, it would appear that tonight’s version of Ball is the one that the naysayers were warning us about. He appeared ill-prepared for the big moments in this game, often forcing passes or shots that had no business being executed in these crucial late-game scenarios. The turnovers were backbreaking. His passes were off the mark. He hoisted up some truly ridiculous shots that had no chance of going in.
It’s a fine line to walk in regards to what Ball should take away from this game moving forward. He’s at his best when he is playing free and loose, though that seeming lack of discipline is something that he should have the wherewithal to rein in when he sees that it isn’t working. We’re still early enough in the season that Chris Finch will likely have a long leash for LaMelo to try different looks and approaches. However, if performances like this become anything close to a norm in big games against better opponents like the Cavaliers, Finch will have to take a tougher approach about Ball’s decision-making and overall approach.
One poor performance in the first loss of the season isn’t enough to hoist the red flags. However, these are the issues that the team will need to clean up throughout the course of the season.
Beringer Shines
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Wolves. Obviously, Ant stole the show with his electric and efficient 47-point performance. However, it’s starting to look like Tim Connelly’s gamble on Joan Beringer is going to pay off big time.
With every passing game, Beringer is looking more and more capable to step into the rotation and aptly fill the shoes of Rudy Gobert. He’s everywhere on the court. When he’s not flying in for rebounds, he’s flying in for sensational blocks or highlight-worthy dunks. Beringer spends a lot of time flying. He’s got the juice.
Beringer’s 17 minutes of play saw him shoot 100% from the field (six for six) to score 12 points, snag seven boards, and pick up two blocks. That’s a ton of production for a backup center in that limited amount of playing time, and many could make the case that he deserved more down the stretch.
While there isn’t a ton of room for Beringer to earn more minutes at the time, there is a world where Finch could attempt to give Beringer more minutes by cutting into the playing time of Trey Lyles. Converting another center to power forward is not necessarily the most ideal, but the lack of production that the Timberwolves are getting from Lyles could cause the coaching staff to reconsider their rotations.
With considerably more upside residing within Beringer, it may make sense for the team to extend his leash a bit. He’ll continue to have growing pains and still needs to work on defending without fouling, though his linear improvement would suggest that he will be handling more responsibilities sooner rather than later.
82-0 may be out of play, though it’s 81-1 until it ain’t.
Game Highlights
Up Next
The Timberwolves will have a day to rest before returning back to Minnesota for a two-game homestand, beginning with a matchup against Stephen Curry and the 1-3 Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, October 28th. The game tips off at 7:00 PM CT on DAZN-MIN and NBA League Pass.
